US car sales analysis 2017 Q4 – Hybrid green cars

Sales of hybrid vehicles rose by 2.6% to 90,377 in the fourth quarter of 2017, while overall sales in 2017 rose by 12.4% to 368,137. Hybrid vehicles remain the most popular from among the three types of green cars by far, selling more than double the volume of the other two types: PHEV and EV. Perhaps unsurprisingly given its size, the growth it recorded in 2017 was lower than for the other two types (sales of both grew by more than 25%), however it still is much better than the decline in the market overall.

Highlights:

Although over the years Toyota’s Prius sub-brand has become synonymous with hybrids, its regular hybrid offerings are amongst the models in the segment with the biggest year-on-year sales decline – so much so that the non-plug-in Toyota Prius liftback come under serious attack from the Ford Fusion Hybrid in 2017, thanks to the Ford’s 78% growth in sales

Although the growth in Ford Fusion’s sales relegated the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid down to third spot, it is important to note that the hybrid crossover still registered growth of almost 25%, which when viewed alongside the almost-tripling in sales of the Highlander Hybrid and the steady sales of the Camry Hybrid suggests that buyers may be switching towards hybrid versions of conventional models, after years of preferring stand-alone models

While the Fusion Hybrid soared in 2017, sales of its smaller C-Max Hybrid baby brother and Lincoln MKZ Hybrid cousin were down in 2017, albeit their drop was far from Prius-like

Close behind the C-Max, and actually outselling it in Q3’17, was the new Kia Niro, whose crossover-lite design is a clear success with buyers, unlike the more conventional “Prius on the cheap” look of its Hyundai Ioniq cousin, which seems to be struggling to gain traction with buyers much like the second-generation Honda Insight did

Lexus saw sales of hybrid version of its conventional models decline slowly by 4.4% in 2017, while sales of its dedicated-hybrid CT fell by almost a half

The new-for-2016 Honda Accord Hybrid managed to outsell its direct rival Toyota Camry Hybrid in 2017, though the new version of the latter turned things around quite quickly in Q4’17, easily outselling the Honda

From among all the big car brands offering green vehicles in the US by far the least successful is the the VAG brands Audi and Volkswagen, with Audi A3 Sportback e-Tron seeing its sales fall by a third in 2017, and the Jetta hybrid exiting the market following poor sales throughout its lifetime

Note: Clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model. clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off

About Krzysztof Wozniak

Kriss grew up in Poland reading German car magazines, before moving to England and graduating to the British magazines, which he still considers the best in the world and continues reading them after he'd moved to the US. In college he promised himself he's buy himself a used Porsche before he turned 30 (not to be accused of having a mid-life crisis), but instead family needs dictated a Subaru Outback. Still waiting for that perfect moment to buy a used 2008-ish Cayman...
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